Our last homestudy visit and interview were today, and it went as smoothly as could be hoped for. We talked about the online Hague training, books we've read, and our house. Our oldest daughter was interviewed and subjected to a complete physical (just kidding on that last part). Now our social worker can write up our homestudy document and submit if for approval to her boss, the Bethany agency and America World. Then our full dossier heads off to be translated and sent to Ethiopia.

Once there, our dossier will be reviewed and we'll take our place in the queue. When a suitable child is (or children are) found for us, we'll receive a referral. Based on the estimated timelines we're hearing about, this will likely happen near the end of next year. We'll probably travel in 2010, Lord willing.

We continue to read many blogs about adoptive parents' experiences with adoption, including several from Ethiopia. We're excited to read that things often go quite smoothly, but we've read some scary stories, too. No outcomes are guaranteed, so this process truly is a step into the unknown. We can rest easy knowing that the future is unknown only to us—God is never caught off-guard or surprised.

Sales in our store continue to perk along, but we still have some goodies left. Once the product Kristen has already made is sold, we have a big decision to make where the store is concerned. Maintaining inventory and doing custom orders is time-consuming, and needs to stay a lower priority for us than raising the girls. We've also heard from more than one person that Ethiopian officials frown on adoptive families raising funds online (and they're watching, apparently). They reportedly see it as a sign of financial weakness on the part of the family.

Is any of this actually true? It may all come from one situation where a family reportedly posted pictures and a message, "here's our referred child—help us pay to bring them home" on their blog. This would be a MAJOR no-no and breach of adoption laws, and Ethiopian officials would have just cause to cancel the adoption.

The simple truth is that we can't be 100% sure where this bad vibe about online fundraising comes from. So though the money raised would be a real blessing, we may detach the store from our blog site or shut it down completely.

Thanks for reading. As always, we appreciate your prayers.